Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank clash

RAMALLAH, West Bank Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians during a stone-throwing protest on Thursday to mark the "Nakba", or "catastrophe", as Palestinians term their displacement when Israel was founded.

Hospital officials said Muhammad Abu Thahr, 22, and Nadim Nuwara, 17, were both shot in the heart outside Israel's Ofer Prison near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military said security forces had tried to break up a riot of about 150 Palestinians using "riot dispersal means and rubber bullets".

"Reports regarding Palestinian casualties are currently being reviewed," it said in a statement.

Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior Palestinian official, told Reuters: "The use of live bullets on protesters is a dangerous escalation by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's extremist government, which aims to drag the region into a new cycle of violence."

Ofer prison has been a focal point of Palestinian anger over Israel's detention and occupation policies.

Around two hundred demonstrators waved flags and threw stones there, marking the 66th anniversary of the "Nakba", when many Palestinians fled or were expelled from their home towns and villages during the war of Israel's foundation in 1948.

Netanyahu said earlier the Palestinian commemoration was part of "endless propaganda" against Israel. The country would continue to build itself and its "united capital Jerusalem", and push ahead with a new law declaring Israel a Jewish state.

Protests and violence in the West Bank have declined in recent months. U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stumbled and finally collapsed in April.

In the most recent deadly incident, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces during a raid into the West Bank city of Jenin on March 22.

Palestinians seek an independent state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in a 1967 war.

Next In World News

BRUSSELS The European Union will extend by six months its main economic sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine after the bloc's leaders meet in Brussels on Dec. 15, diplomatic sources and officials said on Friday.

KABUL The United States will "remain committed" to Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday, amid questions about what President-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy will mean for the country as it faces a renewed Taliban insurgency.

Reuters is the news and media division of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: